Thanksgiving may now be in the rearview mirror, but the need at the Bonney Lake Food Bank is greater than ever and donations are lower than they have been in a long time.

“Normally by Thanksgiving, we have three times the food back here,” Executive Director Stew Bowen said, waving toward the back storage room. “Donations are way down.”

According to Bowen, things right now on their shelves are “very slim,” even after the traditional pre-Thanksgiving increase in donations, which this year were not a high as in the past.

“We were so low up until this last week, instead of giving them one item per shelf, it was one item per rack,” Bowen said. “So instead of getting five items, they were getting one.”

Normally, the upswing in giving as the holidays approach begins around the first week in October, but this year, Bowen said they did not see things start to pick up until the second week in November.

Bowen said the food bank still has a decent supply of fresh breads and vegetables, which are donated by local stores, but canned good supplies are very low.

“Food’s down, money’s down,” Bowen said with a resigned shrug. “We always need dry goods like mac and cheese, tuna fish and peanut butter.”

Bowen said the rise in inflation this year, especially in food prices has hit the food bank hard as many families can no longer afford to donate at the level they may have in the past. Bowen said he thinks it is a similar issue keeping food drive donations lower than in the past as well.

“I think that’s why we’re not seeing the volume we’ve had,” he said.

In addition, the rising costs of food hurt the food bank’s buying power as well.

“It breaks the bank for us to buy peanut butter,” he said, adding that for many families, peanut butter serves as a comfort food that provides food security in a way that frozen chicken breasts do not.

Bowen said the food bank served more than 430 families this year at Thanksgiving, which he said was similar to last year. But outside of the holiday season, demand for services is way up over the past several years.

Bowen said for the past several years, the food bank has been serving an average of 1,200 families per month, up from about 300 per month in 2007.

“We’ve got a lot of struggle going on in the community,” Bowen said, addressing the idea that the relatively affluent city of Bonney Lake is immune to the need facing many communities throughout the state and country. “Just because they live up here on the top of the hill doesn’t mean they’re exempt.”

Bowen said he has seen many families consolidating into single houses to save money and has noticed an increase in requests for deliveries since bus service was cut to east Pierce County in October.

But while demand continues to increase, the lingering economic difficulties are taking their toll on the food bank, which has received only about half of the donations they usually get by this time, and only 10 percent of the turkey donations.

One couple, Bowen said, who each year has contributed $1,000 to the food bank was only able to donate $500 this year.

But through it all, Bowen remains positive and is sure to thank those who can and do donate to the food bank.

“We’re really, really grateful for the support from the community,” Bowen said. “But we’re all struggling.”